Melanie Sykes
Melanie Ann Sykes (b.7 August 1970) is an English television presenter and model. Career[edit source | editbeta] Sykes was born to an English father and an Anglo-Indian mother. She first came to public attention as the bikini-clad girl in the Boddingtons beer advertisements with the broad "Northern"accent in the mid-1990s. Amongst other work during the decade, she also modelled for Berlei lingerie.[2] After first reporting for The Big Breakfast, she has continued her television career, including stints on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and as presenter of Eastenders Revealed.[citation needed] In 1999 Sykes presented Melanie Sykes' Southall Stories, a documentary for BBC Two on Asian culture in Great Britain. She has also hosted a variety of awards shows, including Miss World, the BAFTAs and the Q Awards, and presented her own radio show on Capital FM.[citation needed] Her television career stalled for a period, although she made a successful comeback as host of Today with Des and Mel (with Des O'Connor) in 2003. On 12 May 2006 ITV announced that the show would be one of a number to be axed in a "painful, but utterly necessary" move.[3] Her other work for the ITV network includes prime-time shows [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vault_(game_show) The Vault], Celebrities Under Pressure, National Television Awards Party of the Year, and the British Soap Awards. She appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV daytime chat show Loose Women in October and November 2005 and later returned as a guest anchor in October 2008 and May 2009. Sykes presented The A List, a national radio chart show based on total sales, produced by Unique the Production Company at the studios of London's Heart 106.2. She left the show towards the end of 2006 and was replaced by Gail Porter.[citation needed] In 2006, the book Blooming Beautiful: My Plan for Looking Great, Being Healthy and Surviving Hormonal Havoc, Throughout Pregnancy and as a New Mum, co-written by Sykes with Hilary Boyd, was published by Michael Joseph. In recent years she has been the face of Head & Shoulders shampoo in the UK, appearing in print and television advertising and the high street chain Matalan.[citation needed] She has also appeared in advertisements for Morrisons,Wynsors World of Shoes and Churchill Insurance.[citation needed] In November 2006, Sykes filled in for Paul O'Grady when he took leave from The Paul O'Grady Show. On 8 May 2007 and 5 November 2007 she again presented the show when O'Grady took leave from the series, and yet again while O'Grady was ill from 15 April to 18 April and 22 April and later on 2 November 2008 with Des O'Connor. She has most recently[when?] been seen as the presenter of the daytime series Gene Detectives for BBC One.[citation needed] Sykes filled in for O'Grady once again on 8 April 2009.[citation needed] In 2008 she became a judge on The Sofa Factor for GMTV, where viewers send in short clips and the winner gets to present TV Pick of the Day plus win a trip to Las Vegas. She was heard on BBC Radio 2 with Aled Jones sitting in for Steve Wright in the Afternoon on 22, 23 and 24 December 2008. In May 2010, she began co-hosting the BBC Radio 2 show Going Out With Alan Carr after the resignation ofEmma Forbes.[4] She continued on the show until it finished in March 2012. In August 2011, she returned to daytime TV, presenting Let's Do Lunch With Gino and Mel, alongside Gino D'Acampo on ITV1. She co-hosts prime-time series Missing Millions, which started on 13 September 2011, alongside Paul Heiney on ITV1.[5] In August 2012 she returned as co-host with Gino D'Acampo for a second successful series of Let's Do Lunch With Gino and Mel. She posed naked for the December 2011 edition of men's magazine Esquire.[6] Personal life[edit source | editbeta] Sykes attended Mossley Hollins High School and studied A-level Religious Studies at Ashton Sixth Form College. She was a member of Ashtonian Brass Band along with her father, mother and two sisters, playing the baritone horn. She dated singer Matt Goss for five years and also went out with Max Beesley. She married Italian actor Daniel Caltagirone (b. 18 June 1972) in January 2001, and the couple had two children: Roman (born 2002) and Valentino Luca (born 21 July 2004). In July 2008 it was reported that the couple had split up, with Sykes having "grown apart" from Caltagirone, who had moved out of their Hampstead, London home.[7] They divorced in June 2009.[8] She married her boyfriend Jack Cockings on 18 May, 2013 at Sherborne Castle in Dorset. Category:1970 births